A couple of quick questions on the 45/70 Goverment cartridge. Is it a straight walled case or does it have a slight taper? Is a case that has a slight taper considered straight walled? What is the effective range of this cartridge shot out of say a 14" T/C barrel?

Any suggestions on bottleneck cartridges with a case length 1.4" or less with a minimum .30 caliber bullet and must have a minimum 500ft lbs of energy at the Muzzle? Can NOT be a Wildcat.

Looking for a new possible T/C Contender deer hunting round to play with.

I should also add that its a Contender and cannot handle the "High Pressure" cartridges that the Encore can.

Even though the 45-70 case has a slight draft, it falls under rimmed straight wall case. A 30 carbine is a rimless straight wall case. One thing you don't have to worry about when reloading 45-70's is trimming the brass. Some of my brass have well over 30 firings through them.

Matt, I'm no expert on the 45-70 but, with all due respect, I think you can do better with a different barrel/cartridge combination for deer. We were shooting soft loads through a Browning high wall a couple months ago (24" bbl as I recall) and getting significant bullet drop at 100 yards. Unless you're planning on short range shooting you may be better served by the 30-30 or longer range cartridge for deer, since you can't load the 45-70 to the velocity needed to reach out there to its capabilities. You could go with the lightest possible grain bullet but that kind of defeats the purpose. Just sayin'...

The 30-30 cannot be used legally in my State. The bottleneck case cannot excede 1.4". Straight walled has no case length limit. I have used the .357 Maximum in the past and it its a heck of Whitetail round. I usually don't take shots past 100yards with my pistol. I do not have that barrel anymore. I have a very effective .44Mag barrel but was just looking for a new cartridge to play with.

Here are the IL pistol regs for Whitetail straight from the IDNR site:

The only legal ammunition for a centerfire handgun is (1) a bottleneck
centerfire cartridge of .30 caliber or larger with a case length not exceeding
1.4 inches, or (2) a straightwalled centerfire cartridge of .30 caliber
or larger, with no minimum case length; both of which must be available
with the published ballistic tables of the manufacturer showing a capability
of at least 500 foot pounds of energy at the muzzle.
Non-expanding military-style full metal jacket bullets cannot be used to
harvest white-tailed deer; only soft point or expanding bullets (including
copper/copper alloy rounds designed for hunting) are legal ammunition.

Shan--I'm not sure. Is a 9mm .30 cal or larger and does it excede 500ft/lbs at the muzzle? I'm not real bright on the bullet diameters i'll admit. If so it is legal. The only regs are what i posted above. Anything that fits into those regs is legal. It says nothing about the rim style i.e. rim or rimless.

sounds like a 375 winchester need to me, T/C chambers it and its much tamer than the 45/70. The 45/70 in a contender is a real wrist punisher and if you dont deal with heavy recoil it will hurt you, straight wall case with a 375, heavy bullet, lots of energy, should be good to 150 yards or better. I use it as a parent case for one of my wildcats, good luck.